Four students in Morrisville State College’s Ford ASSET program volunteered to perform oil changes for the elderly, in the automotive department’s Ford ASSET lab, with assistance from their instructor Mark Ashton. Their efforts were part of a campus-wide brigade of giving during April Month of Service, an annual event on the Morrisville State College campus. Students performed oil changes for three hours. They also spent hours behind the scenes preparing by obtaining a list of the vehicles so they had all the oil and filters on-site and determining if they had oil life monitors that needed to be reset.
The Ford ASSET program, sponsored by Ford Motor Company, allows students to earn an associate degree while being involved in a cooperative education experience with a participating dealership. Participating in the community service project were Ford ASSET students John Battagilia, William Yarns, Cody Kietzmann, and Chad Smith (all seniors in the program this year). They were supervised and assisted by Mark Ashton, instructional support associate in the automotive department.
“I think it is important for students and staff to be involved in community service initiatives to give back to their community. The people we worked with couldn’t tell us enough how they appreciate what we did. It was such a success that we plan on doing it again this year during the college’s month of community service,” said Ford ASSET lab instructor Mark Ashton.
Student Chad Smith agrees, saying “It feels great to be helping out. I was happy to give something back to the community.”
